Warfare and defence Books

Book SynopsisFor two years, Tyree H. Bell (1814-1902) served as one of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s most trusted lieutenants in the Civil War. Forrest’s legendary exploits and charisma often eclipsed the contributions of his subordinates, as his story was told and retold by admiring soldiers and historians. Bell, however, stood out from others who served with Forrest. He was neither a professional soldier nor an attorney-politician; he was, instead, a farmer with no previous military experience, a model of the citizen-soldier.Using Bell’s unpublished autobiography and other primary materials, including Confederate letters, diaries, and official correspondence, author Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., worked with Connie Walton Moretti and Jim Browne, two of Bell’s great-great-great grandchildren, to augment Bell’s manuscript and to write the first full-length biography of this significant Confederate soldier.Born in Kentucky, Bell grew up on a Tennessee plantation and became a farmer and stock raiser. At the outbreak of war, his neighbors asked him to be captain of a company of volunteers they were raising for the Provisional Army of Tennessee. In 1861, he entered service with the Twelfth Tennessee Infantry and quickly became its lieutenant colonel. He distinguished himself in the battle of Belmont, where he commanded the regiment, and continued his steady performance at Shiloh.By the following year he was promoted to colonel and led the Twelfth Tennessee in the Kentucky campaign, rejoining Kirby Smith’s army for battles at Cumberland Gap, Richmond, and Perryville. After obtaining permission to leave the Army of Tennessee, he became a brigade commander under Forrest. Bell lad half of Forrest’s forces in the attack at Fort Pillow as well as in numerous other battles and expeditions. After the war, Bell returned to Sumner County to resume farming and eventually moved his family to California.In addition to giving insight into the man whose courage and leadership earned him the nickname “Forrest’s Right Arm,” the authors explore Bell’s early years in Tennessee and his adventurous postwar career in business and land speculation. This portrait of Bell is one of an unsung leader who risked much to fight for the Confederacy.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFourteen-year-old George Maguire was eager to serve the Union when his home state, Maryland, began raising regiments for the coming conflict. Too young to join, he became a 'mascot' for the Fifth Maryland Infantry Regiment, organized in September 1861. Although he never formally enlisted or carried a weapon, Maguire recounts several pivotal events in the war, including the sea battle of the Monitor vs. Merrimac, Peninsula Campaign action, and the Battle of Antietam.During middle age, Maguire recorded his memoir-one of the few from a Maryland unit-providing a distinctive blend of the adventures of a teenage boy with the mature reflection of a man. His account of the Peninsula Campaign captures the success of the mobilization of forces and confirms the existing historical record, as well as illuminating the social structure of camp life. Maguire's duties evolved over time, as he worked alongside army surgeons and assisted his brother-in-law (a 'rabid abolitionist' and provost marshal of the regiment). This experience qualified him to work at the newly constructed Thomas Hicks United States General Hospital once he left the regiment in 1863; his memoir describes the staffing hierarchy and the operating procedures implemented by the Army Medical Corps at the end of the war, illuminated with the author's own sketches of the facility.From the Pratt Street riot in Baltimore to a chance encounter with Red Cross founder Clara Barton to a firsthand view of Hicks Hospital, this sweeping yet brief memoir provides a unique opportunity to examine the experiences of a child during the war and to explore the nuances of memory. Beyond simply retelling the events as they happened, Maguire's memoir is woven with a sense of remorse and resolve, loss and fear, and the pure wonderment of a teenage boy accompanying one of the largest assembled armies of its day.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhile many associate the concept commonly referred to as the 'military-industrial complex' with President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address, the roots of it existed two hundred years earlier. This concept, as Benjamin Franklin Cooling writes, was 'part of historical lore' as a burgeoning American nation discovered the inextricable relationship between arms and the State. In Arming America through the Centuries, Cooling examines the origins and development of the military-industrial complex (MIC) over the course of American history. He argues that the evolution of America's military-industrial-business-political experience is the basis for a contemporary American Sparta. Cooling explores the influence of industry on security, the increasing prevalence of outsourcing, ever-present economic and political influence, and the evolving nature of modern warfare. He connects the budding military-industrial relations of the colonial era and Industrial Revolution to their formal interdependence during the Cold War down to the present-day resurrection of Great Power competition. Across eight chronological chapters, Cooling weaves together threads of industry, finance, privatization, appropriations, and technology to create a rich historical tapestry of US national defense in one comprehensive volume.Integrating information from both recent works as well as canonical, older sources, Cooling's ambitious single-volume synthesis is a uniquely accessible and illuminating survey not only for scholars and policymakers but for students and general readers as well.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the morning of August 21, 1861, John T. Wilder, a brash young colonel of a Union mounted infantry unit nicknamed the “Lightning Brigade” ordered his men to open fire on the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, damaging buildings, sinking steamboats along the riverfront, and injuring men, women, and children. In the midst of Reconstruction and an emerging new South a mere eight years later, Wilder was elected mayor of Chattanooga. While Wilder is most closely associated with the Lightning Brigade, which helped to pioneer the use of both mounted infantry and repeating firearms during the American Civil War, his military accomplishments occupied only five years of his eighty-seven year life. His immense postwar success, however, left a permanent mark on the industrial development of the war-torn South in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is the comprehensive picture of Wilder’s nearly nine decades that Maury Nicely seeks to capture in Forging a New South: The Life of General John T. Wilder. “For many war heroes, there was not much beyond the war worth telling,” Nicely writes. “Such was not the case with Wilder.” A successful entrepreneur and industrialist, after the war Wilder relocated to East Tennessee, where he created dozens of businesses, factories, mines, hotels, and towns; was elected mayor of the city he had shelled during the war; and cultivated close personal and business relationships with Federal and Confederate veterans alike, helping to create a new South in the wake of a devastating conflict. Presented in two parts and accompanied by more than sixty detailed photographs and maps, Nicely’s balanced study fills a significant void—the first complete biography of General John T. Wilder.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe fifteenth volume of a new, well-received and highly acclaimed series on critical infrastructure, Emergency Services Protection and Homeland Security is an eye-opening account which discusses the unique challenges this industry faces and the deadly consequences that could result if there was a failure or disruption in the emergency services sector.The Emergency Services Sector (ESS) is crucial to all critical infrastructure sectors, as well as to the American public. As its operations provide the first line of defense for nearly all critical infrastructure sectors, a failure or disruption of the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) would be devastating.Emergency Services Protection and Homeland Security was written to provide guidelines to improve the protections and resilience of this infrastructure.

Read more less

Book SynopsisH. Ibrahim Alegöz holds master's and doctoral degrees in civilization studies and in political science and international relations, specializing in African studies. He has conducted field research in Somalia, served as a research fellow at the University of Minnesota. (USA) His research focuses on the role of major powers in Africa, political violence, conflict analysis and peace building.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise by Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics. For the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name. It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond.The book was first translated into the French language in 1772 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot and a partial translation into English was attempted by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905. However, the most popular (and accurate) English language translation was completed by Lionel Giles in 1910. Leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, General Douglas MacArthur and leaders of Imperial Japan have drawn inspiration from the work.This edition has 380 footnotes, an introduction, and brief biographies on the 11 main commentators on Sun Tzu''s work. This case laminate collector''s edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket. 

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe history of the theory of naval warfare has long been in the debt of Julian Corbett, so Naval and Military Press are happy to announce the publication of this reprint of the 1918 edition of his important work.Corbett looks at the theory of war, and then the theory of naval war: from grand strategy to strategy. He looks at how England, with an active naval policy, was able to prevent often stronger nations and navies from ever landing successfully, or cutting supply routes from colonies and empire. The object of naval warfare, which made the foregoing possible, depends upon control of the sea, although not necessarily on omnipresence. A mere threat often suffices. By using the history of navies to good effect, Corbett illustrates his points clearly and well: naval strategy and tactics is often regarded as somewhat specialised for the general reader of military history, but Corbett makes the subject easy to understand, yet emphasises the complexities of his subject without recourse to jargon or technobabble.In all this is one of the important books on the subject, and is well worth reading even if it is not relevant to one''s field of study in any way.

Read more less

Book SynopsisVol. III of Fortescue''s classic history of the British army- continues the story from 1763 to 1792. The bitter war against the rebellious colonies in North America is lost., and by contrast there are the growing pains of Empire. The loss of the Americas is covered in detail, as is the state of the British Army, following Cornwallis'' disastrous capitulation at Yorktown. The book concludes with Britain on the verge of war with Revolutionary France.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is a truly encyclopedic survey of artists' responses - both 'official' and personal - to 'the horrors of war'. "Art and War" reveals the sheer diversity of artists' portrayals of this most devastating aspect of the human condition - from the 'heroic' paintings of Benjamin West and John Singer Sargent to brutal and iconic works by artists from Goya to Picasso, and the equally oppositional work of Leon Golub, Nancy Spero and others who reacted with fury to the Vietnam War. Laura Brandon pays particular attention to work produced in response to World War I and World War II, as well as to more recent art and memorial work by artists as diverse as Barbara Kruger, Alfredo Jarr and Maya Lin. She looks finally to the reactions of contemporary artists such as Langlands and Bell to the US invasion in 2001 of Afghanistan and the 'War on Terror'.

Read more less

Book SynopsisChemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), terrorism and the 'war on terror' are major features of international relations and global concern. Terrorist threats and actual violence have become increasingly dangerous and lethal since the 1970s. However, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 heralded a new era in terrorist action and were the culmination of a terror campaign against American targets world-wide. "The Changing Face of Terrorism" evaluates the continuing threat and counter-measures since 9/11 and into the 21st century. It is a sober and measured evaluation of the CBRN threat and argues that continuing terror attacks are inevitable and the 'war on terror' will be a continuing feature in international politics and military action. Benjamin Cole shows how effective counter-terrorist measures must be measured and based not only on effective police and military intelligence and action but on careful evaluation of the politics, motivations, scientific and technical abilities of groups - no terrorist group has made a nuclear device - and religious and personal motivation.Trade Review"This topic is unquestionably of major importance, on a par with some of the most serious environmental dangers we face'. Adrian Guelke, Professor of Comparative Politics at the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queen's University, Belfast and author of Terrorism and Global Disorder"Table of Contents1 Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Terrorism in Historical Context 2 Technical Opportunities and Constraints 3 Operational Motivations and Disincentives to Using CBRN Weapons 4 Political Motivations and Disincentives to Using CBRN Weapons 5 Theological Motivations and Disincentives to Using CBRN Weapons 6 Psychological Motivations and Disincentives: The Terrorist Personality and Group Decision Making 7 State-Sponsored CBRN Terrorism: Motivations and Disincentives 8 Homeland Security and Terrorist Decision Making 9 The Future

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten by a former Colonel of the Coldstream Guards, this book gives an account of the Crimean War generally, from its causes and beginnings to its conclusion after the long-delayed fall of Sebastopol. As such, it can be read with profit by the general reader as well as the student of military or regimental history.The first part sets the political scene for the war, detailing the inconclusive military operations in Bulgaria and Romania and the novel arrival of women nurses in a theatre of war as well as the ravages of disease. The second part deals with the allied invasion of the Crimean peninsula - making no effort to hide now ill-equipped and badly prepared the allies were - and the Battle of the Alma. Part III describes the beginnning of the long and weary siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Balaclava, with the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. Part IV is solely concerned with the bloody Battle of Inkerman in which the Guards took a major part and suffered heavy losses. Part V outlines the savage winter of 1854-55 in the Crimea, during which the scantily-clad British army suffered more from the weather than the enemy. In Part VI, Sebastopol is at last taken and finally, Part VII deals with the end of the war on March 30th 1856. There are five appendices, including Crimea casualty breakdowns of the Coldstreams and the British Army generally, and six maps.

Read more less